I believe the game "The Last Express" won't run on PicoGUS SB16 emulation. The game insists on using a high DMA channel (5,6,7) for sound and it also requires a SB16, won't work with a normal SB or SB Pro.

carlostex wrote on 2026-04-10, 15:29:

I believe the game "The Last Express" won't run on PicoGUS SB16 emulation. The game insists on using a high DMA channel (5,6,7) for sound and it also requires a SB16, won't work with a normal SB or SB Pro.

I tried to test the DOS version, but unfortunately it seems like it won't work with a voodoo3 due to some kind of VESA mode incompatibility (VESAFIX and UniVBE didn't help)

Random question.
Has anyone piped the sound output directly to the CD-in header of an ac97/hda motherboard?
How does it behave? Does it just play automagically?
Or must the ac97/hda need initialisation?

myne wrote on 2026-04-11, 04:19:

Random question. Has anyone piped the sound output directly to the CD-in header of an ac97/hda motherboard? How does it behave? […]
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Random question.
Has anyone piped the sound output directly to the CD-in header of an ac97/hda motherboard?
How does it behave? Does it just play automagically?
Or must the ac97/hda need initialisation?

The AC97/HDA codec needs to be initialised before it will make any sound, VSBHDA can do it but I'm not sure if it offers only a mode that enables the audio mixer but doesn't also do SB emulation

carlostex wrote on 2026-04-10, 15:29:

I believe the game "The Last Express" won't run on PicoGUS SB16 emulation. The game insists on using a high DMA channel (5,6,7) for sound and it also requires a SB16, won't work with a normal SB or SB Pro.

I just started it and it seems to be working perfectly using the PicoGUS to emulate both the CD-ROM and SB16. I'm using the first download I found, a version from Internet Archive that I had to coax into working by copying the HD.HPF file from the .zip from the download into the install directory.

polpo wrote on 2026-04-11, 04:38:

I just started it and it seems to be working perfectly using the PicoGUS to emulate both the CD-ROM and SB16. I'm using the first download I found, a version from Internet Archive that I had to coax into working by copying the HD.HPF file from the .zip from the download into the install directory.

That's great news then!

polpo wrote on 2026-04-11, 04:38:

I just started it and it seems to be working perfectly using the PicoGUS to emulate both the CD-ROM and SB16. I'm using the first download I found, a version from Internet Archive that I had to coax into working by copying the HD.HPF file from the .zip from the download into the install directory.

Hi polpo,

I have been designing and building some 286 based mainboards and I was wondering if I could be permitted to add the PicoGUS on my new board design.
I am just designing and building these projects and I publish gerber files and schematics so people could theoretically build my projects.
In reality I think almost no one is doing this but I just publish my projects only for historic and educational purposes to get some proven designs documented of historic technology.

So I am currently working on a micro ATX 286 system based on the VLSI TOPCAT chipset and I have some spare board space, and I thought how cool could it be to possibly include a PicoGUS on the board.

Would that be something you are okay with?
I would of course include all the credit to you and include the license conditions as you stated in your GitHub.
If you prefer I don't do this, it's really perfectly fine too, I accept however you feel one way or the other.
I would not want to step on anyone's toes so that's why I want to ask you for permission.

Of course I don't plan to take up any of your time to support this, I just would want to integrate some form that is compatible with what you have built already. So the system would be based on a 286 and is capable of running RealDOOM.
My GitHub is here and the link is an example of one design I am going to build soon, the boards are ordered by someone who is going to also build it.
https://github.com/rodneyknaap/ATX-286AT-V3E-mainboard

So the TOPCAT REV2 is a new unpublished design which is currently in progress for a second version.
I will create a GitHub page for this soon.
I doubt anyone will build these systems but I enjoy designing and building them.

Kind regards,

Rodney

Rodneyk wrote on 2026-04-11, 23:45:

Hi polpo, […]
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Hi polpo,

I have been designing and building some 286 based mainboards and I was wondering if I could be permitted to add the PicoGUS on my new board design.
I am just designing and building these projects and I publish gerber files and schematics so people could theoretically build my projects.
In reality I think almost no one is doing this but I just publish my projects only for historic and educational purposes to get some proven designs documented of historic technology.

Sounds like a super cool project! I’m totally fine with that. Quite a few people have made their own versions of the PicoGUS and add on modules for projects like the TinyLlama, but this would be the first I know of that’s integrated right onto a motherboard. I’m looking forward to seeing it when it’s done!

polpo wrote on 2026-04-12, 01:00:

Sounds like a super cool project! I’m totally fine with that. Quite a few people have made their own versions of the PicoGUS and add on modules for projects like the TinyLlama, but this would be the first I know of that’s integrated right onto a motherboard. I’m looking forward to seeing it when it’s done!

I'm glad to read your message!

Many thanks and I will publish the design on GitHub as soon as it's ready.
I am preparing a few projects to combine the shipping and then I will build it soon.
I look forward to it!

Kind regards,

Rodney

Does the USB mode require an IRQ and/or DMA setting on the PicoGUS v2.0?

I’m using an Orpheus 2 sound card which provides GUS/SB/OPL3 but I still want to use the PicoGUS for CD-ROM and USB joystick/mouse support.

Can I leave all the jumpers unset (off) or do I need them to be set? If they need to be set, does it cause conflicts with the Orpheus?

sofakng wrote on 2026-04-13, 18:22:

Does the USB mode require an IRQ and/or DMA setting on the PicoGUS v2.0?

I’m using an Orpheus 2 sound card which provides GUS/SB/OPL3 but I still want to use the PicoGUS for CD-ROM and USB joystick/mouse support.

Can I leave all the jumpers unset (off) or do I need them to be set? If they need to be set, does it cause conflicts with the Orpheus?

In USB mode if you want to use USB mouse you need an interrupt for the serial port. Joystick and CD-ROM don’t need IRQ. Nothing in that mode uses DMA. It’s ok to leave the IRQ or DMA jumpers off if you aren’t using them.

Thanks for the reply!

If I connect an IRQ jumper then is it “reserved” regardless of the features I use?

For example, if I use USB mode and have a jumper on IRQ 5, will that IRQ be “used” even if I don’t plug in a mouse?

Hi guys, i have a question, i made a 320x200 cinepack 12fps video, adpcm 22khz, in my 486DLC33 work great from HDD using QV or VFW, if i burn the AVI to a cdrom and play from a 4x IDE unit work fine too, but playing from picogus cdrom unit is too slow, i have frameskip and delay

any ideas? sadly i dont have a real panasonic cdrom to test

sofakng wrote on 2026-04-13, 20:18:

Thanks for the reply!

If I connect an IRQ jumper then is it “reserved” regardless of the features I use?

For example, if I use USB mode and have a jumper on IRQ 5, will that IRQ be “used” even if I don’t plug in a mouse?

The card can bet set to be essentially "inert" on the selected IRQ by turning off any features that require an IRQ - Edit: Subject to the electrical limitations mentioned by polpo below

theelf wrote on 2026-04-13, 21:56:

Hi guys, i have a question, i made a 320x200 cinepack 12fps video, adpcm 22khz, in my 486DLC33 work great from HDD using QV or VFW, if i burn the AVI to a cdrom and play from a 4x IDE unit work fine too, but playing from picogus cdrom unit is too slow, i have frameskip and delay

any ideas? sadly i dont have a real panasonic cdrom to test

Check your transfer speed from the virtual drive using something like speedsys, if it's running at full speed it should be able to get 3.5x with bin/cue images and 4.5x for ISO images. I had some settings in the BIOS like IO recovery period which was slowing down the virtual drive speed but still allowed the audio side to work fine.

sofakng wrote on 2026-04-13, 20:18:

Thanks for the reply!

If I connect an IRQ jumper then is it “reserved” regardless of the features I use?

For example, if I use USB mode and have a jumper on IRQ 5, will that IRQ be “used” even if I don’t plug in a mouse?

Yes, it's like most other cards that are jumpered for IRQs - they actively drive the IRQ line high/low and will fight with other cards on the same IRQ line. Sometimes the "active" card can win and overcome the "inactive" card that drives the line low, but sometimes not. It's best to remove the jumper to prevent this fight.

theelf wrote on 2026-04-13, 21:56:

Hi guys, i have a question, i made a 320x200 cinepack 12fps video, adpcm 22khz, in my 486DLC33 work great from HDD using QV or VFW, if i burn the AVI to a cdrom and play from a 4x IDE unit work fine too, but playing from picogus cdrom unit is too slow, i have frameskip and delay

any ideas? sadly i dont have a real panasonic cdrom to test

Are you in DOS? Windows?

PicoGUS firmware v4.1.0 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v4.1.0

Fixes/improvements

SB mode

• Sound Blaster ADPCM playback is now supported (4, 2.6, and 2-bit modes). This allows for sound effects in Duke Nukem 2 without needing to patch the game. Thanks to Tube Time (@schlae)'s annotated disassembly of the SB DSP firmware and Torsten Stremlau (@TerrySoba)'s VocTool for an MIT-licensed C implementation to use as a basis.
• Sample rates >44100Hz are now supported, for example 45454Hz, the fastest supported by SB16.
• SBMIDI is supported in addition to MPU-401 in SB mode.
• Fake ADC (recording) is supported. This records garbage data but should help SB16 sound card detection in some OSes.
• Fixes bug in passing DMA from BLASTER variable when running pgusinit. Thanks @andreacampanella for the fix in PR #134.
• More helpful error messages when the BLASTER variable does not match the port/IRQ/DMA settings stored on the PicoGUS.

MPU-401

• Behavior of the MPU-401 emulation is now much more in line with a real MPU-401: it has a 256 byte ring buffer for MIDI out data, and flow control is done via bit 6 of the status port. Previously, MPU support had no flow control and used a pretty enormous buffer to make up for that. The SRAM savings from the smaller buffer will allow for more PicoGUS features in the future.
• Sysex delay is now accurately calculated (we were using microseconds, not milliseconds).
• Re-introduces the song change fix for Frederik Pohl's Gateway.

CD-ROM

• Read multiple sectors at a time during CD audio playback. Should help with pops/distortion on marginal USB drives.
• Fixes loading .iso images in Win9x w/ MKEPanasonic driver by handling lead-out.
• The loaded image is printed after a successful pgusinit /cdload.

General

• SRAM usage is saved across the board by completely eliminating debug prints in release builds, as well as eliminating use of sscanf() type functions. These debug prints didn't go anywhere in release builds (since the UART is taken by MIDI out, and USB by joystick), but they still had runtime overhead in calling printf(), etc.

Is the SB16 hanging note bug present with PicoGUS?
I'm asking because I don't own a PicoGUS...yet 😉

crusher wrote on Yesterday, 05:58:

Is the SB16 hanging note bug present with PicoGUS?
I'm asking because I don't own a PicoGUS...yet 😉

The bug was originally caused by flaws in Creative's DSP code, which has been discovered and corrected. Check this thread for details:
The Soundblaster DSP project

If SB16 DSP support in PicoGUS is being correctly implemented I don't think it should happen, though any related issue with certain modes can always be fixed through firmware update.

polpo wrote on Yesterday, 00:02:

Are you in DOS? Windows?

Hi thanks fo reply!!, im in DOS, using for playback, quickview pro

- Picogus is in USB mode
- Video is a Cinepack 12fps, 320x200 video, tried ADPCM 22khz mono audio or PCM 8bit 11khz, interleave every frame. Video is 40min long, 560mb, then 230-250kb sec
- Tried too msvideo 1 256colors, 12fps, same audio options and interleave, 640mb more or less 270kb sec
- Tried iso and cue/bin

Bot videos i burn in CD and test in a 4x IDE drive and play fine, from HDD too

Using Picogus CD give me stops every 2 or 3 seconds because frameskip

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-04-13, 23:16:

Check your transfer speed from the virtual drive using something like speedsys, if it's running at full speed it should be able to get 3.5x with bin/cue images and 4.5x for ISO images. I had some settings in the BIOS like IO recovery period which was slowing down the virtual drive speed but still allowed the audio side to work fine.

Hi! i get consistent 600kb sec transfer rates in speedsys, and i can confirm by copy a file in DOS is correct

In fact my IDE 4x drive is slower, because i think i use CDRW unit and the unit is old, read at 360-420kb sec, but anyways video play smooth from real CD

I dont have a IO recovery period option in bios

thanks!

polpo wrote on Yesterday, 04:54:

PicoGUS firmware v4.1.0 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v4.1.0 […]
Show full quote

PicoGUS firmware v4.1.0 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v4.1.0

Fixes/improvements

SB mode

• Sound Blaster ADPCM playback is now supported (4, 2.6, and 2-bit modes). This allows for sound effects in Duke Nukem 2 without needing to patch the game. Thanks to Tube Time (@schlae)'s annotated disassembly of the SB DSP firmware and Torsten Stremlau (@TerrySoba)'s VocTool for an MIT-licensed C implementation to use as a basis.
• Sample rates >44100Hz are now supported, for example 45454Hz, the fastest supported by SB16.
• SBMIDI is supported in addition to MPU-401 in SB mode.
• Fake ADC (recording) is supported. This records garbage data but should help SB16 sound card detection in some OSes.
• Fixes bug in passing DMA from BLASTER variable when running pgusinit. Thanks @andreacampanella for the fix in PR #134.
• More helpful error messages when the BLASTER variable does not match the port/IRQ/DMA settings stored on the PicoGUS.

MPU-401

• Behavior of the MPU-401 emulation is now much more in line with a real MPU-401: it has a 256 byte ring buffer for MIDI out data, and flow control is done via bit 6 of the status port. Previously, MPU support had no flow control and used a pretty enormous buffer to make up for that. The SRAM savings from the smaller buffer will allow for more PicoGUS features in the future.
• Sysex delay is now accurately calculated (we were using microseconds, not milliseconds).
• Re-introduces the song change fix for Frederik Pohl's Gateway.

CD-ROM

• Read multiple sectors at a time during CD audio playback. Should help with pops/distortion on marginal USB drives.
• Fixes loading .iso images in Win9x w/ MKEPanasonic driver by handling lead-out.
• The loaded image is printed after a successful pgusinit /cdload.

General

• SRAM usage is saved across the board by completely eliminating debug prints in release builds, as well as eliminating use of sscanf() type functions. These debug prints didn't go anywhere in release builds (since the UART is taken by MIDI out, and USB by joystick), but they still had runtime overhead in calling printf(), etc.

Hi! thanks, but after upgrade to 4.1.0 I can not use the USB drive. If i to cdlist or cdload, just hang. I tried other usb drive same

I downgrade to 4.0.0 and everything is fine

thanks